Survivor: Game Changers premiere review (part 2): Sandra vs. Tony

In the second part of our Survivor: Game Changers premiere review, we bore witness to one of the greatest pre-jury episodes that we’ve ever seen. After all, an epic feud broke out, and it really started with a misunderstanding. Tony had went back to building his ridiculous spy bunker in the dirt, which was great for entertainment but at the same time not exactly the sort of thing that we anticipated working. He overheard Sandra and Troyzan talking, and interpreted what he heard to somehow mean that he was being targeted. That wasn’t the case, but then Sandra straight-up lied to him about what the two were actually talking about.

As a result of all this, consider the feud officially on. Both of them tried to rally some troops in order to take out the other, and we were left with the terrifying feeling that we could be saying farewell to one of the biggest players ever in the second episode. There was so much time spent on the two of them trying to get allies together that we figured that there was no chance that the Nuku tribe (a.k.a. the smurf tribe) was going to be the ones heading to Tribal Council.

After the immunity challenge, that was confirmed — though we do have to say that this was one of the most dramatic, epic battles for immunity that the show’s ever given us through 34 seasons. It looked like Mana had made an insane comeback, but Malcolm’s luck ran out in the final minutes (a microcosm for his challenge history on the show) and JT was able to seal the deal for Nuku.

Here’s the only thing that you need to know about Nuku at the moment — Cirie remains on the outs on her tribe, and nobody really trusts her. Since this is still so early, there is time for that to change.

Now things get crazy again … and then sad

After the challenge, Sandra once again went to work trying to ensure that Tony ended up going home. Meanwhile, he did his part to convince Michaela that she should flip. This was really all just between two winners, going toe-to-toe, in order to figure out who survived. Also, Sandra had something in her hair the freaked Michaela out.

We’re pretty sure that the Survivor: Game Changers premiere gave us a genuine sense of anxiety tonight given that we knew we would be losing someone great. We wish that these could stick around for the entire season and make it to the end together. Why did Tony have to stumble upon Sandra when he did? Granted, they probably would’ve turned on each other even if this didn’t happen tonight.

Here’s the thing about Tony — he’s either going to win a season, or he’s going to go out early. He plays for the fences every time. Unfortunately, this time around he struck out and went for the wrong person at the wrong time. This doesn’t take away from what he did the first time, but it makes it clear precisely what can happen when you play this aggressively.

What we don’t understand is how he was convinced that Aubry was going to be the person voted out, given that Sandra was pretty safe from the moment everyone walked in to tribal. Grade: A.

All about the future

Take a look now at our Tony Vlachos exit interview for more insight into what happened in his game.

If you do want to get some more news, head over here to read more about the exit of Ciera. Meanwhile, for some other news, including a preview for what’s coming up, head over to the link here. (Photo: CBS.)